Almah and Virginity

It really does seem like the argument that Almah doesn’t mean Virgin begins with the simple fact that there is another Hebrew word for Virgin, Bethulah and has little substance beyond that.

It is far from unheard of for a language to have more than one word that conveys the idea of Virginity, English has at least two, Virgin and Maiden, with Maiden often being used more poetically.  Modern English of course one can mock and dismiss as virtually a composite language with way more words then we actually need for lots of things.  However Japanese is a much more ancient language, much more comparable to Hebrew in the size of its vocabulary.

Shojo is a Japanese word that means specifically female virgin and is thus also the word for Virginity.  It is sometimes confused with Shoujo, the Japanese word for Girl but the Kanji is different.  In that sense it is pretty equivalent to Bethulah since Bethulah is the Hebrew word for Virgin that the word for Virginity comes from, as well as Bethulah being possibly related to Bath the Hebrew word for daughter.

Dotei is another Japanese word for virgin.  And I have read contradictory reports on if it is gender neutral or specifically means “male virgin”.  The existence of Shojo does mean that a gender neutral word would rarely be used of a female specifically.  Almah, unlike Bethulah, does have a grammatically masculine form, ‘elem, used in 1 Samuel 17:56 (of David at a time when as far we known he hadn't had sex yet) and 1 Samuel 20:22 where the KJV translated it as “strpling” and “young man”.  The Quran interestingly implies Mary was Trans Masculine and/or Intersex in Surah 3:36.

The idea that Almah just means “young woman” or “damsel” like the Japanese word Otome I can likewise respond to by pointing out there is another Hebrew word with that meaning, na’arah which can’t mean virgin since it’s used of Dinah after she is violated in Genesis 34:3.  And that is still separate from the standard Hebrew words for Girl, Woman and Female.

The poetic use of Almah in Proverbs 30:19 only really works if the word implies being a virgin.

There is another Japanese word that has been relevant to my speculations about Almah.  Miko is a Japanese word commonly translated as “Shrine Maiden”. Being a Miko never required a lifelong vow of chastity but it at least used to be that Mikos were required to be chaste while serving as a Miko.

The possibility that the Almah referred to some class of women in Ancient Israel who took a ceremonial vow of chastity I think is possible because of Psalm 68:25 and the Alamoth of Psalm 46 and 1 Chronicles 15:20.  And it may be the best way to explain the Almahs of the Song of Songs.  It’s also possibly related to the group of women Mariam the sister of Moses led in Exodus 15:20 who also played Timbrels, Mariam was called an Almah in Exodus 2:8.  There were also the Women who served at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting in Exodus 38:8 and 1 Samuel 2:22.  The Timbrel connection could also connect this subject to Judges 11:34.

Now there are other aspects of how the Christian view of Isaiah 7 is criticized, but today I just wanted to focus on the meaning of the word.